Economic offences a threat to national security: FM

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday warned of greater sophistication in economic crimes and of its growing threat to national security.

"I would like to remind you that the economic offenders are getting increasingly more sophisticated using modern technology," Mukherjee said at the Central Excise Day function.

The minister also said that economic crimes happening across international borders are risk to the national security.

"Of late, we see that linkages have also developed between economic offences and threats to national security particularly the economic offences which are cross-border in nature," the minister said.

There are increased linkages amongst various economic crimes and the trails of economic offences are not only confined to the Indian boundaries but it also covers many countries, the finance minister said.

Further, he said, "The economic offences in the cyber space have made geographical boundaries irrelevant for the offenders and the nature of economic offences has assumed global dimension."

Mukherjee asked the officials at the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to gear up to face the new challenges in the area of cross border economic crimes "which are detrimental to our national security interest".